Today’s blog is another post heavy with text. However, is it a continuation from last Wednesday’s post on opening a new business. Today’s post is all about marketing and figuring out your brand. I am going to split marketing up into two different categories. Today’s category is about figuring out a logo and determining a company image and next weeks blog post is going to be all about actually physically marketing your business.
Determining a brand is very hard. You already know what you are doing and what your company name is now how do you put all of that into a logo that represents who you are? For PhotoPlanning Services we have been battling this for over a year now. We decided to work with a person by the name of Paul Wang on designing a logo for PhotoPlanning Services. After a couple of rounds we found the logo. The PhotoPlanning Services logo has our name, a lovely bouquet, and what we do all in it. We love our logo!
So if you are trying to design a logo working with someone is a great option. But think of what you would like to see and what you want in your logo. Do you want your logo colorful, black and white, simple, have things like flowers, etc. included in it? Once you know this creating a logo becomes much easier.
Once you have a logo it is easier to create a brand for yourself. Branding is all about keeping things consistent. Your business cards portray the same feel as your website(s), etc. Keep all of your marketing materials consistent of your brand. Even when we are the photographers at a wedding we always keep in mind what our brand is and how we want to portray our brand. Therefore, we come professionally dressed to all weddings and client meetings because what we do and how we act is all part of the PhotoPlanning Services brand.
If you are the photographer and you arrive in jeans or if you drink while working what image do you portray? Not a very good image or branding of your company. Now ask yourself would any one attending the wedding as a guest hire you based on what they have seen? I know I would never hire a photographer who showed up in jeans and definitely would never hire a photographer who was drinking at the reception.
Branding takes lots of work. I know PhotoPlanning Services has been working on branding for almost a year in the designing of our new website which will be debuting in a few weeks. Even though our current website shows our brand a little we have developed our branding within our blog and client site to match our new website. Branding is every color you choose on your website, the text color(s) on your website, blog, and business cards. Branding is who you are and how you portray your company.
To recap everything figure out what you will be doing, what your company’s name is, what your logo is going to be, how is your company’s image going to be portrayed through your website and on your business cards, and lastly brand yourself so that when you talk to prospective clients they see that you and your business are professional.
Next week I will be blogging more about how to market your company and what you need to have in place to do so.